


Purple Lilies on the Moonflow

by alamorn



Category: Final Fantasy X & Final Fantasy X-2
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 02:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20499437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alamorn/pseuds/alamorn
Summary: Yuna and Rikku explore the sunken machina city and find each other.





	Purple Lilies on the Moonflow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Welsper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welsper/gifts).

The first time Yuna went beneath the surface of the Moonflow, she was a child, giggling with delight at the shoopuff, the new friend who'd come to take her away from Bevelle and his stern, furry face. The next time, she'd been on her pilgrimage, and she'd been afraid. This time, she was going in prepared. Next to her, Rikku checked the fit of her suit, stretching and reaching her arms over her head, checking the connections of her air tank. When she was satisfied with her equipment, she turned to Yuna and double checked all of her tubes as well.

"Ready, Yunie?" she asked, pulling her goggles down, respirator dangling next to her mouth.

Yuna pulled her own goggles down, turning her head back and forth to make sure her hair wasn't caught uncomfortably in any part of the wetsuit. "I think so!"

"It's just like sphere-hunting, only it's underwater," Rikku assured her. "It'll be fun! I've been wanting to check these out for real since I was down there in the Extractor."

"Stay close to me?" Yuna asked, embarrassed to find that she was a little nervous. She'd fought Yu Yevon and Vegnagun, she'd walked in the Farplane, she'd traveled the world, and she was still afraid of being trapped underwater and drowning.

"Sure thing," Rikku said and danced into the shallows of the Moonflow, splashing and throwing herself backwards into the flowers and pyreflies. Yuna laughed. She'd learned the sending dance when she first decided she would be a summoner, and dance had rarely given her pleasure since. She admired Rikku's ability to find joy wherever she looked. When they'd traveled together on the Celsius, she had been searching for that, as much as for _him_.

Laughing, she followed Rikku into the river, passing from the purple and red flowers lining the banks to the clear blue water of the depths. The respirator tasted like metal, and it was hard to remember to breath through her mouth, but being able to look at the sunken city was worth it.

It was _beautiful_. The machina buildings soared up and down, all curved metal covered in swaying algae and river plants. Yuna swam after Rikku into a window gaping open like an invitation. Inside, it was even more remarkable. Yuna wasn't sure if the story she'd heard, that the city had grown too large and collapsed under its own weight, was correct or not, but whatever had happened had done so quickly. The detritus of daily life was scattered around, coral growing over and among the tipped table and chairs.

It looked like a sitting room, and Yuna imagined what it would have been like to sit in it, before the large window they'd just swum through, the moonlilies glowing, the pyreflies lighting the surface of the river. She could understand the hubris that had led them to build over the Moonflow. 

As she watched the fish flit and flee in the coral, Rikku kicked over to a cabinet and braced her feet on the wall to wrench it open. It opened with a surge of bubbles, and revealed a set of ancient dishware, patterned in designs Yuna had never seen. With a glance back at Yuna, Rikku continued deeper into the building.

It was bigger than Yuna had realized. The corridors wound out before them, seeming to branch endlessly. Rikku seemed totally at ease, but the longer they spent within the maze of ancient iron, the more nervous Yuna found herself. There were skeletons in some of the rooms, bones scattered. It was to be expected; she hadn't thought a city could be destroyed without casualties, but to pass through, as if their graves deserved less respect than those given a proper sending made Yuna's chest tight.

Or perhaps that was the pressure.

She wasn't sure how deep they were, and she couldn't ask Rikku anything more complicated than air levels.

Finally they seemed to come to some sort of public hall. The door was grand, huge and wrought with elaborate decorations. Stylized machina and people in clothes Yuna had never seen. Rust obscured some of the figures, and had eaten a hole through the upper right corner. After a moment to admire the work, Rikku tried to pull one of the sides open and failed, then kicked the hole larger and wriggled through.

Yuna blew a stream of bubbles through her nose. She'd begged Rikku to take her along, but she might not have, if she'd known exactly what she was getting into.

No, she could do this. She eyed the jagged edges of the hole with trepidation, then kicked over and stuck her head through.

Rikku's light played over an immense space, and there was another light -- a hole in the ceiling, letting the wavering light of the sun, far above, fall on what must have been a stage, long ago. Thinking only of the performances that must have taken place there, Yuna started her way through the hole until she jerked to a stop, respirator pulled from her mouth with a painful clash against her teeth.

When she grabbed it to put it back in, working her way past the fang of the door that had caught her air tube, she saw bubbles streaming out. Oh _no_.

She tried not to panic, her chest suddenly burning, and waved Rikku over.

When Rikku saw what had happened, she swam over with a few strong kicks, pulling her respirator out and pushing it to Yuna's face. Yuna sucked a grateful breath in, then passed it back. Rikku hooked her arm with Yuna's and guided them up towards the hole in the ceiling, trading the respirator back and forth as they went.

With Rikku's arm in hers, Yuna didn't feel nearly as nervous, though it was farther to the surface than she'd thought. The light in the big hall had been so dark it was almost purple. As they swam up it shifted from purple to blue to a sick green, and then, fifty feet from the glittering surface, the tank ran empty. Yuna sucked and sucked and there was nothing coming. She stared at Rikku, panic starting to crush in on her. It felt like there was a vise wrapped around her chest.

Rikku's green eyes were just visible behind the smoked glass of her goggles, narrowed with determination. And then her lips were on Yuna's, pushing air from her lungs to Yuna's. The vise loosened, and Yuna's fingers tightened on the thick material of Rikku's wetsuit. And then, with a few powerful kicks, Rikku brought them up.

They broke the surface gasping, and treaded water there for a moment. Rikku laughed, giddy and bright, turning onto her back to float above the ruined city. Yuna found herself pressing her fingers to her lips. It hadn't been a kiss, not really, but...

She kind of wished it had.

Her face went hot and she let herself sink a little deeper in the water, hiding her burning cheeks.

"Wasn't it beautiful, Yunie?" Rikku asked, delight bubbling in her voice, the way the air had bubbled from her lips to Yuna's. "Did you the see the _colors_?"

"I saw," Yuna said. "I don't know if I'm cut out for diving."

Rikku was vertical in the blink of an eye, getting up in Yuna's face, voice wheedling. Yuna's heart started beating faster than it had when she thought she was going to drown. "You can't let a little accident like that scare you away! You're the High Summoner, Yunie, you're not scared of _anything_."

Rikku was right. Yuna _wasn't_ afraid of anything. She crashed forward, catching Rikku's lips with her own. Surprise stopped Rikku's legs and they sunk into the water, Yuna's arms wrapped around Rikku's strong shoulders and waist. When Rikku recovered, she kicked them back to the surface, kissing back with the energetic ferocity she applied to everything in life.

When they broke apart, Yuna leaned her forehead against Rikku's and they laughed into each other's lips. 

"I thought we were treasure hunting! I would have dressed nicer if I'd known!" Rikku gasped, smile tugging her cheeks.

Yuna darted in for another kiss, wanting to capture that sunshine happiness, swallow it and grow it within her. "You're perfect as you are."


End file.
